From the moment I was chosen by the holy relic

Eileen quietly turned to the page with the scorched edges. Unlike the previous pages with their clear images and precise lines, this page was yellowed, with charred edges and ink stains that looked like tear stains made of blood and ashes.

Her fingertips hovered over a line of extremely small characters, where a string of words had been almost completely burned away.

She murmured:

"The Fifth Tower: Abyss Tower, built on the ridge of Misty Mountain, is named Devouring World Fire."

"Like the previous four towers, it has a core, a base, and a master. However, it does not welcome any visitors."

"It's not that we're not allowed in, but that no one can get close without being 'changed' first."

"It is built on the misty mountain ridge, and the entire mountain range is covered year-round by a kind of particle called 'Ghostly Ash'. That ash is not a natural substance, but a conceptual burning substance released by the core of the tower every forty-nine days, which spreads across the mountains and fields."

"The fog has shrouded the ground, leaving it barren and the earth's veins disordered. Spiritual energy cannot circulate stably, and even clocks will show two different times on the side of the tower."

"An explorer from the Oersted School who approached the tower left a record stating:"

That wasn't fire; it was meaning itself beginning to crumble.

Eileen points to the name below the tower inscription:

"Tower Master: Hersa Erchi, formerly the chief alchemist of the Black Vein branch of the Imperial Academy of Sciences."

"She is different from the previous four tower masters."

"She is not a mage, not a spiritualist, not a tactician, and not a madman."

"She is a logical fallacy."

She once said, "Since truth is verifiable, then black magic is also a system of explanation, only it's faster."

"In order to verify the compatibility between black magic and the structure of reality, she voluntarily accepted the implantation of fragments of the Black King's will and built the Tower of Abyss after completing the Spirit Seal Reversal Array."

"The Tower of Abyss Ashes is also known as the Tower of Upside Down."

"The visible portion on the ground consists of only three floors, no more than thirty feet high."

"But it lies seventy-six layers underground, entirely made of limestone and gray steel, shaped like a torch 'inserted upside down into the earth's core'."

"Each layer is a self-contained structure, storing different types of Black Magic Contamination Fuses, Cultural Transmission Mechanisms, Active Corruption Texts, and Refining Domain Infection Arrays."

Eric whispered, "What do you mean?"

Eileen answered slowly:

"It means she's not waiting for the world to become what the Demon King needs."

"She is creating that world step by step."

Eileen gently lifted a page, which contained fragments of Hersa's research notes, belonging to the Spirit Seal Index Control Table.

"She defined a variable called SEI (Soul Entropy Index), also known as the degree of corruption of the soul seal."

"Level 13 is the highest corruption threshold. Upon reaching this level, the spirit seal will automatically disintegrate."

She pointed them out one by one:

SEI 0: The world completely rejects black magic;

SEI 5: Black magic began to circulate among the people;

SEI 8: National institutions tolerate or use certain Dark Arts spells;

SEI 10: Black magic enters mainstream military and academy;

SEI 11: Clergy accept black magic as a "new interpretation";

SEI 12: The three races of the world (humans, elves, and dwarves) accept "black magic is the truth";

SEI 13: The Spirit Seal breaks automatically.

"The last record in the fragments shows that the SEI index had reached 8.7 before the end of the Second Period."

"On the eve of sealing the Tower of Abyss, she disassembled herself into thirty-six mental organs and buried them in the gray cursed rock of the tower's core layer."

"Her self was like a priest who had scattered embers."

Her last words were:

"The black fire must not be extinguished; I am the fire within the ashes."

Eileen paused for a moment before continuing:

"Helsa called the entire Tower of Abyss the Anchor of Entropy."

"She doesn't expect to break the laws of the world overnight, nor does she expect a key figure to unlock the spiritual seal for the Black King. She doesn't believe in fate, blood, or artifacts; she only believes in structure."

"She believes that as long as the world changes slowly enough and in a decentralized manner, no one will realize that this is the beginning of the collapse."

"Therefore, she set up seven gates."

"It's not seven doors, but seven types of intrusion paths. Each door is lit by a candle of illusion in the Cursed Fire Chamber at the bottom of the Abyss Tower. When it burns, it releases a wisp of illusory smoke that rises along the secret passage in the tower, eventually penetrating the top of the tower and leading a dark vein in each of the seven directions."

"For each gate, Hersa personally designed an event, seven times, in seven locations."

"The first gate began with the herdsmen."

"On the western grasslands, there was a horse-herding tribe called Duerwei. That year, the early spring weather was unusual, and many infants died. An old witch showed the tribal elder a black bonnet engraved with the 'Nurturing Charm,' saying it was a blessing left by an old god that could protect infants from illness."

"That black domino, which came from the imprint library on the thirty-second floor of the Tower of Abyss, was written by Hersa himself in a non-spiritual spell form. The user had no idea that it was a piece of black magic, but instead passed it down through generations."

"This is the first type: sorcery that disguises magic as folklore."

"The second subject is academics."

"The Royal Academy of Sorcery in Thurlow City has launched its first course entitled 'Theoretical Models of Unruly Energy.' The lecturer is a scholar known as Krzy Wallis, who once lived briefly at the foot of Misty Mountain for a year."

"That course didn't teach black magic or spells, but it did teach the premise that black magic can be quantified and modeled."

"Once people believe that it can be studied, then its use is just the next step."

"This is the second door: using knowledge to construct a legitimate logic for black magic."

"The third gate is religion."

"When the Tower Master built the tenth floor of the Tower of Abyss, he personally wrote a prophecy book, disguised with extremely obscure sacred language, and named it 'The Third Revelation.' He then distributed it among the believers on the border as the exiled divine child."

Thirty years later, a priest of the Old Gods named Adam Rafe heard the revelation in a dream and incorporated it into his doctrinal revision.

"From that moment on, the totem of gray fire officially appeared for the first time in the Old Gods Church."

"Helsa did only one thing: he mixed a touch of black magic into the image of God."

"This is the third gate: let faith speak the name of the enemy."

"The fourth gate is war."

"During the Battle of the Deep Fortress, the forbidden magician forces of the Kingdom of Sevian used a magical artifact called the Soul-Burning Bomb. This artifact uses the remnant souls of fallen soldiers as its core, and after being shaped by an alchemical structure, it explodes to burn a large area of ​​spiritual matter."

"The design of these Soul-Burning Bullets actually originated from Hersa's spiritual construct test documents on the fifty-sixth floor of the Tower of Abyss. She wrote in the last part of one of her experimental records: 'If this technique can be controlled, the battlefield will be the first cultivation of rotten earth.'"

"Thus, black magic became weapons, and black magicians became officers."

"This is the fourth category: a classification that turns black curses into 'weapons'."

"The fifth gate is for the nobility."

"Helsa personally visited three of the seven noble families in southern Serian, serving as an alchemy advisor to the Nightshade Feast. She taught them how to use a bloodline rune to break assassination spells, and in return, she added a 'protective serpent' to the crests of those families."

"That snake is actually a transformation of black magic runes. Once it is engraved into the next generation through patriarchal law and inheritance, it can never be washed away."

"This is the fifth door: to let the privileged use black magic to protect their rights, and to make them protect black magic."

"The sixth gate is the market."

"On the sixtieth floor of the Tower of Abyss, there is a carving workshop. Hersa once made a simplified spell mark called the Rootless Ash Rune into wearable ornaments and distributed them to her Abyss Merchant Guild."

"These ornaments were later processed into protective pendants, gray fire peace stones, and sleep-enhancing hooks, and were sent to major cities in the form of caravans."

"This door is the least impressive, yet the most dangerous."

"Because when black magic starts to have a market, it is no longer easy to be despised."

"This is the Sixth Gate: to commercialize the Black Curse and gradually numb people."

"The seventh gate is the most secret."

"Helsa left a booklet on the altar in the heart of her tower, a selection of nursery rhymes from the flames. Thirty-two of the songs were written entirely in children's syllables, with the lyrics incorporating the reversed form of the sealing spell."

"These 32 songs have been passed down orally by children in different villages, and many have even become calming tunes taught before starting school."

"You think you're listening to nursery rhymes. In reality, you're teaching the next generation how to sing the symbols of world destruction in a gentle voice."

She paused for a moment before continuing:

"The heart of the Tower of Abyss is called the Chamber of Cursed Fire."

"That was the first part that Hersa built. All the ash particles, cursed flames, and entropy lines rise from here."

"It is a living stone chamber."

"The ground is igneous rock, the walls are made of bone ash, and the dome is a series of spiral veins, like the rotation of stars or the collapse of consciousness."

"The altar is in the center. Thirty-six bone lamps stand on it, each lamp post burning with an inextinguishable flame of concept."

"The flame is not for illumination, but a 'fire of meaning'."

"Anyone who enters that room will inevitably lose a language ability. Some will never be able to say 'I' again; some will lose the word 'no'; some will never be able to say 'God' again."

"Helsa completed the final ritual in that room."

"She stood on the altar, immersed her brain core in the burning ashes, and lit the thirty-six lampposts."

"He left behind a curse that says 'self-ignition'."

Eileen read aloud in a low voice:

"I melt myself with language, and reconstruct my name with cursed flames."

No one can burn my soul, for I first burn myself.

If you call me, I will only hear fire in the ashes, neither name nor sound nor shadow, but only Hersa.

The firelight flickered suddenly, as if someone had exhaled a breath of hot air.

Leah couldn't help but tug at Eric's cloak, as if she had felt a chill for a moment.

Eileen slowly closed the page, her expression remaining calm:

"This is the Tower of Abyss."

"A tower is not built to shelter people, nor to trap enemies, nor to form a wall."

"It's all for one thing: to make the whole world no longer the world we know."

"Let it be the one he can return to."

The fire burned very quietly.

The wind finally stopped blowing.

Eileen silently folded the blueprint of the Cursed Fire Chamber and tucked it back into the "Twilight Tower Fragment".

The matter of the Five Pagodas ends here.

Her palm rested quietly on the pages of the book, as if on a newly closed coffin lid; her expression was serene, and her tone steady.

"Five Pagodas".

"The Deep Shadow Tower is responsible for detecting the disturbances in the dreams of those with the Blood Seal, using dreams as a listening shell to capture the breath of returning home."

"The Golden Tower is responsible for identifying the frequency of the blood soul, collecting the waves with a golden plate, and locking the name of the master with the eternal memory lock."

"The Dream Curse Tower suppresses personality, destroys the self, and turns the respondent into an empty shell, offering themselves to divine will."

"The Blood-Sculpting Tower forges flesh, attempts to create the shell of a divine artifact, and creates a battle body that, though devoid of a soul, does not crumble."

"The Tower of Abyss gradually made the world no longer reject the arrival of the Black King."

"This is their design; it's not about any one person or any one tower, but the entire system."

Her voice trailed off, as if afraid that her words might disturb the spirits within the tower.

Eric remained silent for a long time before slowly exhaling.

He stared at the fire, his hands resting on his knees, but he didn't know when, his knuckles had turned white from gripping so tightly.

"If all of this is true," he began, his voice like metal scraping against stone, "if I really am the one with the Bloodmark."

"That means that as long as I make the slightest move, all five towers will respond to me."

"But you said that the tower masters are all dead, or have sealed themselves off, or gone mad, or have turned into towers."

"They are simply unable to move."

"So..."

He looked up at Eileen, his gaze sharp for the first time, not as a question, but as a warrior's instinct to find a loophole in the rules.

"If they really do discover the Bloodstained Ones, how do you think they'll capture their targets?"

"If even the tower master can't make a move, then who will?"

The flame flickered slightly.

Eileen looked at him quietly.

Her gaze showed neither surprise nor hesitation, as if she had been waiting for him to say those words for a long time.

Then she slowly said:

"You forgot."

"There are six Night Whispers."

The air grew slightly still.

The campfire made a muffled thud, as if something had stepped on the charcoal beneath the ash.